The Vatican Information Service is a news service, founded in the Holy See Press Office, that provides information about the Magisterium and the pastoral activities of the Holy Father and the Roman Curia...[+]

Last 5 news

Friday, October 30, 2015

Vatican City, 30 October 2015 (VIS) –
This morning five hundred pilgrims from El Salvador, in Rome to give
thanks for the beatification of the bishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, met
with the Holy Father in the Paul VI Hall. The Pope defined the
Salvadoran bishop martyr as a “good pastor, full of love for God
and close to his brothers who, living the dynamism of the Beatitudes,
gave his life in a violent way while celebrating the Eucharist, the
supreme sacrifice of love, sealing with his own blood the Gospel that
he announced”.

“From the very beginning of the life
of the Church, Christians have always believed that the blood of
martyrs is a seed for Christians, as Tertullian said. Today too, in a
dramatic way, the blood of a great number of Christian martyrs
continues to be shed on the field of the world, with the certain hope
that will bear fruit in a rich harvest of holiness, justice,
reconciliation and love of God. But we must remember that one is not
born a martyr. Archbishop Romero remarked, 'We must be willing to die
for our faith, even if the Lord does not grant us this honour. ...
Giving life does not only mean being assassinated; giving life,
having the spirit of martyrdom, means offering it in silence, in
prayer, in the honest fulfilment of one's duty; in this silence of
everyday life, giving life a little at a time'”.

“Indeed, the martyr is not someone
relegated to the past, a beautiful image that adorns our churches and
which we recall with a certain nostalgia. No, the martyr is a
brother, a sister, who continues to accompany us in the communion of
saints and who, united with Christ, does not ignore our earthly
pilgrimage, our sufferings, our anxieties. In the recent history of
this beloved country, the witness of Msgr. Romero has joined that of
the other brothers and sisters … who are a treasure and
well-founded hope for the Church and for Salvadoran society. The
impact of his commitment can still be felt in our times”.

Just a few weeks before the beginning
of the extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, the example of Msgr. Romero
constitutes, for his beloved nation, a “stimulus to a renewed
proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to announce it in a way
that all people can understand, so that the merciful love of the
Divine Saviour enters the heart and the history of this good people.
The holy people of God in pilgrimage in El Salvador have a series of
difficult tasks ahead of them, which require, as in the rest of the
world, an evangelising announcement that allows witness, in the
communion of Christ's one Church, of authentic Christian life”.

“On this occasion, I make my own the
sentiments of the Blessed Msgr. Romero, who with the well-founded
hope longed to see the happy time when the terrible suffering of many
of our brothers, due to hate, violence and injustice, would
disappear. May the Lord, with a shower of mercy and goodness and a
torrent of grace convert all hearts, and may the beautiful homeland
He has given you, that bears the name of the Divine Saviour, be
transform into a country where all are redeemed and all are brothers,
without differences, since we are all one in Christ our Lord”.

The Holy Father concluded with some
unscripted remarks. “I wish to add something we are forgetting”,
he said. “The martyrdom of Msgr. Romero was not fulfilled at the
moment of his death – it was a martyrdom of witness, of prior
suffering and prior persecution, up to his death. But even
afterwards, following his death – I was a young priest and a
witness to this – he was defamed, slandered, his memory despoiled,
and his martyrdom continued also for his brethren in the priesthood
and in the episcopate. This is not hearsay, but rather things I have
heard. Or perhaps it is best to see it thus: a man who continues to
be a martyr. After having given his life, he continues to give it by
allowing himself to be assailed by all this misunderstanding and
slander. This gives me strength. Only God knows the stories of those
people who have given their lives, who have died, and continue to be
stoned with the hardest stone that exists in the world: language”.

Vatican City, 30 October 2015 (VIS) –
Pope Francis has sent a message to the Santa Marta Group, an
initiative launched by the Holy Father in the battle against human
trafficking, involving the security forces of various countries,
episcopates, social organisations and representatives of various
religious confessions. The group is currently gathered at the San
Lorenzo del Escorial in Spain, a meeting inaugurated this Friday by
Queen Sofia and attended by cardinals, bishops, social activists and
around fifty heads of police from around the world.

In the short time of its existence,
writes Francis, this worthy group has made significant achievements
and is called upon to play a decisive role in the eradication of
human trafficking and modern slavery. He recalls that during the last
year there have been important institutional changes that have
without doubt supported its activity, starting with the meeting of
mayors in Vatican City on 21 July, in which key figures signed a
declaration expressing their commitment to eliminating the new forms
of slavery that constitute a crime against humanity.

He also mentions the recent approval of
the Agenda 2030, with the new United Nations Sustainable Development
Goals, which include the adoption of immediate and effective means
for eradicating forced labour, putting an end to modern forms of
slavery and human trafficking and ensuring the prohibition and
elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including the
recruitment and deployment of child soldiers, with a view to putting
an end to all forms of child labour by 2025.

The Pope also refers to his address to
the United Nations in New York on 25 September, in which he affirmed
that the world demands of government leaders “a will which is
effective, practical and constant, concrete steps and immediate
measures for preserving and improving the natural environment and
thus putting an end as quickly as possible to the phenomenon of
social and economic exclusion, with its baneful consequences. …
Such is the magnitude of these situations and their toll in innocent
lives, that we must avoid every temptation to fall into a
declarationist nominalism which would assuage our consciences”.
“Today the 193 states of the United Nations have a new moral
imperative to combat human trafficking, a true crime against
humanity. Collaboration between bishops and the civil authorities,
each in accordance with his own mission and character and with the
aim of discovering best practice for the fulfilment of this delicate
task, is a decisive step to ensuring that the will of governments
reaches the victims in a direct, immediate, constant, effective and
concrete way”.

“For my part, I pray that God
Almighty grant you the grace of carrying forward the delicate,
humanitarian and Christian mission of healing the open and painful
wounds of humanity, which are also Christ's wounds. I assure you of
all my support and my prayer, and the support and prayer of the
faithful of the Catholic Church. With God's help, and your
collaboration, the indispensable service of the Santa Marta Group
will be able to free the victims of new forms of slavery,
rehabilitate them, along with the imprisoned and the marginalised,
unmasking the traffickers and those who create this market, and
provide effective assistance to cities and nations; a service for the
common good and the promotion of human dignity, able to bring out the
best in every person and every citizen”.

Vatican City, 30 October 2015 (VIS) –
To commemorate 60 years of the Latin American Episcopal Council
(CELAM), the Pope has written a message to the president Cardinal
Ruben Salazar Gomez in which he expresses his gratitude for all the
good the Lord has gradually sown there, and that has borne fruit
through the service of God's Church in Latin America.

“I hope that CELAM, making pastoral
and missionary conversion its priority, may increasingly participate
in, support and give momentum to this evangelising movement towards
all environments and all frontiers. It is important that our
communities are a 'home and school of communion', which attract by a
surprising fraternity based on the recognition of the common father,
and help always to keep alive in the Church in Latin America the
passion for our peoples, the bearing of our sufferings and the
capacity for Christian discernment of the vicissitudes of their
recent history, to open up paths of greater equality, peace and
justice”.

He also emphasises that the upcoming
opening of the extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy “will be an event of
grace in which CELAM must provide a fundamental service of
inspiration, exchange and celebration”.

Finally, the Pope imparts his apostolic
blessing to all members of CELAM, their collaborators, and the
episcopate of Latin America and the Caribbean, placing all these
intentions under the protection of the mantle of Our Lady of
Guadalupe, patron of America, so that by her intercession “Our Lord
Jesus Christ may inspire new and holier missionary disciples in our
Churches, and more courageous builders of peace and justice in our
nations”.

Vatican City, 30 October 2015 (VIS) –
The Holy Father's universal prayer intention for November is: “That
we may be open to personal encounter and dialogue with all, even
those whose convictions differ from our own”.

His intention for evangelisation is:
“That pastors of the Church, with profound love for their flocks,
may accompany them and enliven their hope”.

Vatican City, 30 October 2015 (VIS) –
We inform our readers that there will be no Vatican Information
Service bulletin on Monday, 2 November, a holiday in the Vatican.
Service will resume on Tuesday, 3 November.